Program Notes

Program Notes

Text by Robert Markow

Elgar:In The South (Alassio), Op. 5024Feb25
Feb27
Feb

Alassio is the name of a small town on the Italian Riviera, just a few
miles from France, where Elgar and his wife went in late 1903 to escape thedamp chill of their native England. It was Elgar’s first visit to Italy and hewas duly impressed. Wandering one day through the nearby Vale of Andora,
he wrote of “streams, flowers, hills; the distant snow mountains in one
direction, and the blue Mediterranean in the other. [I was] by the side of theold Roman way. A peasant shepherd stood by an old ruin, and in a flash
it all came to me ̶ the conflict of armies on that very spot long ago, whereI now stood ̶ the contrast of the ruin and the shepherd ̶ and then, all of asudden, I came back to reality. In that time I had ‘composed’ the overture ̶
the rest was merely writing it down.”
Elgar was not entirely truthful about having “composed” the whole
overture in that moment, for the exultant opening theme had already been
jotted down some four years earlier. Nevertheless, it serves perfectly to express
his new-found joy in this spot of land. The second theme is a graceful, gently
flowing melody initially heard in the clarinets in the minor mode. There is afurther theme in the pastoral vein. In place of a development section devoted
to the themes already presented, Elgar introduces two additional episodes.
The first, inspired by thoughts of ancient Roman armies, is a grand, pompous
idea in the heavy brass that paints, in the composer’s words, “the relentlessand domineering onward force of the ancient day, and gives a sound-pictureof the strife and wars, the ‘drums and tramplings’ of a later time.” The second
Elgar described as a canto popolare (a folk song, though it is his own), heard
against an accompaniment of shimmering strings, glockenspiel and harp, firstin the solo viola, then in the solo horn. The themes of the opening section
return in order in the recapitulation, and the music ends in a great orchestral18

Program Notes
Program Notes

tour de force in E-flat major, the key traditionally used for “heroic” music
like Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony and Emperor Concerto, and Strauss’s Ein
Heldenleben.
The first performance of In the South (or Alassio ̶ the work goes byboth names) was conducted by the composer on March 16, 1904 at an Elgar
Festival in London’s Covent Garden. In the South joins Berlioz’ Harold inItaly, Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, Strauss’s Aus Italien, Wolf’s Italian
Serenade and Respighi’s Roman Trilogy as a magnificent musical tribute to
the glory of Italy and the country’s natural beauties.
EDWARD ELGAR: Born in Broadheath, England, June 2, 1857; died inWorcester, February 23, 1934
Work composed: 1903 – 1904 World premiere: March 16, 1904 at an Elgar
Festival in London’s Covent Garden, conducted by the composer
Instrumentation: 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets,
3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (snare drum, bass drum, triangle,cymbals, glockenspiel), harp, strings

24
Feb
25
Feb
27
Feb

Xenakis:Keqrops - Κεqροψ (Κέκρωψ)for piano and orchestra

Iannis Xenakis, whose centenary year is being observed in 2022, ranks
among the most important musical thinkers of the twentieth century. Usuallyidentified as a Greek-French composer, he was born to Greek parents inRomania, grew up in Greece, where he received much of his education, andlived most of his life in Paris (from 1947 onwards). He became a French
citizen in 1965. Xenakis initially set his sights on a career in architectureand engineering, and won degrees in these subjects in both Athens and Paris.
While in Paris, he became an assistant to the renowned architect Le Corbusier.
He worked with Le Corbusier on projects in France, Iraq, India, and, most
famously, the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, which he19

Program Notes
24
Feb25
Feb27
Feb

20

designed mostly himself using principles of catenoid construction. Also inParis, Xenakis pursued further studies in music, particularly with Messiaen.
Xenakis is remembered above all for his use of mathematical models in
his musical designs, bringing the two fields together in a sort of architectural
fusion. He coined the term stochastic music, meaning music in which densetextures he called “clouds” or “galaxies” are constituted of random sequencesof notes, as seen in such works as Metastasis (1954) and Pithoprakhta(1956). The British critic Tom Service has noted in his music a “deep, primalrootedness in richer and older phenomena even than musical history: thephysics and patterning of the natural world, of the stars, of gas molecules,
and the proliferating possibilities of mathematical principles.” Alex Ross,writing in The New Yorker, sees Xenakis as a composer who has “produced
some of the rawest, wildest music in history – sounds that explode aroundthe ears.”
Keqrops was composed in 1986 and was premiered by the New
York Philharmonic with pianist Roger Woodward and conducted by
Zubin Mehta, on November 13 of that year. The work has a prominent
part for piano, but it is not a concerto in the traditional sense of dialogue
between soloist and orchestra. Instead, the piano is closely integrated
into the orchestral texture, and it plays most of the time throughout theseventeen-minute, single-movement work. (A close parallel might befound in Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony.) The title, like that of manyof Xenakis’ compositions, is a compound of two Greek words or roots,
krekoo and opsis. Xenakis translated the title as weaving, but added thatit could also refer to the Mycaenean legend of Cecrops, first king of thecity of Athens and a cultural hero who introduced his subjects to marriage,
ceremonial burial, reading and writing. Dense blocks of sound, furious
eruptions from a large orchestra (all woodwinds and brass except tuba arein units of four), percussive violence, close interweaving of various blocksof sound (woodwinds, brass, strings, piano), and sliding melodic clusters
are features that run throughout Keqrops in music of furious aggression
alternating with uneasy calm.

Program Notes
Program Notes

IANNIS XENAKIS: Born in Brǎila, Romania, May 29, 1922; died in Paris,February 4, 2001
Work composed: 1986 World premiere: November 13, 1986 in New York, by
the New York Philharmonic with pianist Roger Woodward, conducted by Zubin
Mehta
Instrumentation: 4 flutes, 4 oboes, 4 clarinets (4th doubling bass clarinet), 4bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones,tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, 3 tom-toms, 2 bongos), harp, strings,
solo piano

Shostakovich:Symphony No. 1 ㏌ F minor, Op. 10
Few composers excel in their first attempt to write a symphony.
Exceptions include Beethoven, Berlioz, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler andSibelius, but these men were already nearing thirty or were even older when
they first essayed the genre. Dmitri Shostakovich was still a student at theLeningrad Conservatory when he wrote his First Symphony, but this was noimmature, bungling student work. Its premiere on May 12, 1926, under thedirection of the distinguished conductor Nicolai Malko, heralded the arrivalof a major figure not yet twenty, a composer already bursting with a uniquemusical personality and marked for greatness.

24
Feb
25
Feb
27
Feb

What accounts for the success of this remarkable First Symphony?
Boldness of ideas unencumbered by academic and recondite procedures,a touch of “shock of the modern” tempered by memorable (if not exactlyhummable) tunes, a sense of mischievousness, a flair for instrumental color,harmonic irregularities that seem like “wrong turns” in a silent film comedy,
dramatic events, virtuoso writing for the orchestra, and an overall infectious
enthusiasm are some of the reasons often put forth.
A short introduction presents a quirky dialogue between trumpet andbassoon. The first movement’s main theme is set to a grim marching rhythm,
and is described by musicologist Edward Downes as “a cross between aquick march tune and a bit of old-fashioned ragtime.” In contrast the solo
flute offers a gently lyrical, lilting theme, which is echoed by the clarinet.
21

Program Notes
24
Feb
25
Feb
27
Feb

The second movement alternates a zippy scherzo subject with aslower chant-like idea. The scherzo portions are reworkings of anorchestral piece Shostakovich had written at the age of twelve(!), andincorporates a new sonority not yet heard in the symphony, the piano.
At one point Shostakovich superimposes both the scherzo and the chantideas, which initially were set to different meters, different rhythms,different tempos, and different moods.
Romantic expressiveness is found in the third movement, whosemelancholic opening theme is actually a clever variation of the principal
theme of the first movement (the marching tune). The movement leads
without pause into the finale. The solo clarinet presents the movement’s
first main theme, a breathless, virtuosic affair that covers the range of theinstrument. Ideas from previous movements are worked in, including ahighly dramatic timpani solo derived from the rhythmic motto of the thirdmovement. A long coda follows, growing steadily in intensity to the final
frenzied outburst.
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Born in St. Petersburg, September 25, 1906; died inMoscow, August 9, 1975
Work composed: 1924 – 1925 World premiere: May 12, 1926 in Leningrad,by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicolai Malko
Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, alto trumpet, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani,percussion (snare drum, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, tam-tam, bells), piano,strings

Formerly a horn player in the Montreal Symphony, Robert Markow now writes program
notes for orchestras as well as for numerous other musical organizations in North America and Asia. He taught at Montreal’s McGill University for many years, has led music
tours to several countries, and writes for numerous leading classical music journals.

22